Discuss the poems Strong Man and Grandmother's Cactus both which were written by Tony Curtis

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Coursework                                                    Thursday, 07 February 2002

        

I am going to discuss the poems ‘Strong Man’ and ‘Grandmother’s Cactus’ both which were written by Tony Curtis.

Both the poems are concerned with love and death ‘Strong Man is about a loving father who is extremely strong and gets weaker in age and then dies’, but as he gets weaker he still has a strong spirit. My grandmother’s cactus is about a grandmother that was a real character she had loads of different experiences and had a ‘Strong’ personality. Some times she made people dislike her because she arguing a lot with family and neighbours but her grandson always loved her. Her grandson who wrote the poem, had bought her a present when he was in ‘Primary School’, which was a cactus, he had bought this from ‘The royal welsh show.’ This cactus becomes a very important symbol to the grandson after the grandmother dies the cactus reminds him of his grandmother.

 In ‘Strong Man’ the poet isn’t one of the man’s sons because he mentions “you” and “your” but it is still a very personal poem. In the first verse the poet shows that the man is strong. By showing the man doing lots of things that are extremely hard to do, like punching nails into wood “with a clenched fist.” The poet uses the image of the father being like a three. I think this is a good because we think of trees be large, strong, able to stand up to nature, long lived, permanent structure, something that’s always going to be there. I think from the happy cheerful family fun in the first verse that the children thought that their father would always be there for them, showing off his strength, swinging all five of his sons from his arms and “turning like a roundabout.” In the second verse the mood of the poem the sons have to do all the care and everything for the father. The roles have be reversed he is like the baby he cannot go to the toilet on his own.

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 Although it is very sad to see this strong man weak and helpless I think he is still strong in his heart and there is a lot of strength in the love they feel for each other. The man is about to die, that is what Tony Curtis means by the line “In the final hour” when the father is now so light and fragile that in stead of it being “like holding onto a tree” Tony Curtis uses the simile “like holding on to a tree” Tony Curtis uses the simile “a frame of bones like plywood” to ...

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